Your first computer

[Drewski]

TRS-80 model 1, a whopping 4k RAM and a cassette tape "drive". I scraped and saved to get that thing back in 8th grade. Yeah, I'm old.

[lowbelly]

TRS-80 model III. Of course all the pictures show it with two floppy drives. How I wanted a floppy drive... somehow they sold it to my dad with just floppy drive BAYS and the old cassette drive. You hit 'play', an asterisk starts flashing, and 5 minute later you get an 'A', 'B', 'C', but usually a 'D' or an 'F'. That was its system for telling you if it was actually able to read the tape this time or if you need to try again. I'd get really excited when I finally saw that 'B' for 'kings and catapults'.

I had no idea what kinds of machines Apple was producing at the same time!

[rrl]

Atari 800XL

[iMacFarlane]

My first real computer was the Commodore 64, with 1541 disk drive and an old 13" color TV as a monitor. The day I played Bard's Tale on it was pretty much the last day I ever played my Atari.

The first computery type thing I had, though, was this thing. You could play a few matching games, music, and memory type stuff on it. Anybody remember what it was called? I do, just seeing if you recognize it or if you think it's some weird cell phone.

[SkyBell]

Whatever happened to computer design? I feel like in the last 5 years or so, everything has become so "sterile" and "clean.". It's nice looking I suppose, but I miss the designs of the 80's, 90's and early 00's. Maybe I'm just stuck in the past. (Actually, that's almost certainly true, but still. )

[tienathlon]

A no name custom built running AMD K6-2

[buster102]

My First Computer was a Powerbook 180c ( dead ) my father gave it to me when i was still 6 or 7 years old...
at that time yeah its really cool and we are so popular because its "Apple" but sad to say my cousin broke it and
when i was 11 my mom bought a Desktop PC for everyone to use( which im still using right Now ) and now the PC is soo slow and sometimes hangs
i really need a new one right now for college
but my parents cant afford to buy even the cheapest laptop
But im still proud to own such prestigious kind of Computer...

[mtbdudex]

1983, I was in college engineering school.
Bought a Timex Sinclair, and it's 16k RAM external module.

Yes, I also had the thermal printer


Come Sept-1984 put $ down on a 128k Mac

Here is the complete price list


and my self portrait

[Anonymous Freak]

Originally Posted by iMacFarlane

My first real computer was the Commodore 64, with 1541 disk drive and an old 13" color TV as a monitor. The day I played Bard's Tale on it was pretty much the last day I ever played my Atari.

The first computery type thing I had, though, was this thing. You could play a few matching games, music, and memory type stuff on it. Anybody remember what it was called? I do, just seeing if you recognize it or if you think it's some weird cell phone.
Image

Oh, holy crap! I had one of those, too! It was, as the page your photo comes from, the Merlin: http://www.pushclicktouch.com/blog/?p=72

And it has been recreated as an iPhone app! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/merl...419192368?mt=8 (Edit: By a few people: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myrd...419224103?mt=8)

[4JNA]

Originally Posted by Anonymous Freak

...I had one of those, too!

i had one of those, three i guess! still have it in the box actually. i actually like the itunes apps more, the 'touch' buttons work better than late 70's membrane contacts...

still have merlin, the mattel hockey game, the coleco football game, and some other stuff that makes me feel really old. always gets the kids to laugh when i get them out, so that's something useful i guess. not as much fun as the 2600 with the super cart full of roms, but not bad for a few blinking lights!

[Mito]

Originally Posted by macbook pro i5

my first laptop was an old toshiba with a gig of RAM when I got it it was the best machine out there
Then I got my first iPhone which was a 3gs then started going to the apple website,Saw mac click don it then saw they sold badass laptops with a much better looking OS,Then as a birthday present my dad got me a easy 2011 baseline MBP love it to bits

gig of ram? Wow!

My first computer was some (in that time) good machine. If I remember correctly I was about 4 or 5 when my father came home with it. It was "shiny" 486 and I loved it. First few years I tough that monitor was the "main" part of computer - not that bulky thing under the desk In that time where I lived it was very-very hard to get computer/electronics like Apple. So I was REALLY glad and thankful for PC like 486. about ten years later I bought Macbook Pro and I loved the simplicity of it. Year later I sold it and now I'm using current gen Air.

[gkarris]

Originally Posted by Drewski

TRS-80 model 1, a whopping 4k RAM and a cassette tape "drive". I scraped and saved to get that thing back in 8th grade. Yeah, I'm old.

this...

Unless you wanna count an Atari 2600 with the BASIC Programming Cartridge and Keypad Controllers...

[Drewski]

Originally Posted by iMacFarlane

My first real computer was the Commodore 64, with 1541 disk drive and an old 13" color TV as a monitor. The day I played Bard's Tale on it was pretty much the last day I ever played my Atari.

The first computery type thing I had, though, was this thing. You could play a few matching games, music, and memory type stuff on it. Anybody remember what it was called? I do, just seeing if you recognize it or if you think it's some weird cell phone.
Image

Hell yeah, A Merlin. The greatest Christmas present a (nerdy) kid coulda got in 1979 or so. My mother recently found that in their attic and gave it back to me. I loaded it up with batteries, and... no worky. Oh well.

----------

Originally Posted by lowbelly

'kings and catapults'.

Wow. Good memory. Thanks for the reminder.

[DevixLuvic]

My first computer was a Macintosh Performa 5200CD. My grandfather was a principal at a school, and it was his work computer. When he got a new computer, he gave it to my mother who never used it. I took over from there and learnt so much.

The best memory I had of it though was when me and my dad were in our living room. He was watching TV (we had some old Sony), and at the time he had some fancy universal remote that controlled both the VCR and the TV. Being bored, I pointed the remote at the Performa and surprisingly, it turned on! Though I know now that the Sony and Performa remotes were the same, I felt like such a genius.

---

Originally Posted by iMacFarlane

The first computery type thing I had, though, was this thing

I remember that, a Merlin! My mom found it in her attic last Christmas and gave it to me. Unfortunately it didn't work anymore.

[mentaluproar]

We had a tandy with some weird manilla folder-based GUI for a short time, then an acer for an even shorter time, and in that same year, we got a Packard Bell Legend 386SX with 4 megs of ram, 104 megs of HDD, and a 16-mhz CPU.

That system survived floods, beer, me and my younger siblings, storms that took out TVs and stereos, and my early screwdriver-wielding days, and I used it until half way through high school. I loved that thing! I wish my dad didn't throw it out when I had it in storage. That think was built like a tank!

As for how I came to mac, I remember loving the macs we had in school (except for the G3 scary, fall-and-crush-your-kid machines. I hated those!). I loved the Performas and iMacs. Even as far back as grade school, I loved learning about how and why they worked the way they did. I remember the school's admin gave me his username and password to access everything in the district! I have no idea why he trusted a little kid with that, but I never abused that. Those login credentials carried me until high school!

After some really bad family issues, I had to live with my grandmother for a while. She was terrified of computers, and dad kept trying to get her different machines. The final straw was windows 95. That made her swear off of computers.

When I moved in, I had so many old machines I basically turned the basement into a lab, with parts everywhere, and enough machines to heat my room while I learned on them. I was tinkering with linux, SCO, and BeOS at the time. Grandma became interested again and asked me what I thought she could handle. An iMac G4 was ordered, and she took to it immediately! I remember Dad mocking us for getting a mac, then he watched it boot to X for the first time, with the animated setup guide (10.1.5) and he was dumbstruck.

Grandma now rocks an iPad and I kept and rebuilt the G4 for nostalgia.

EDIT: Renzatek, the gameboy pic made me smile. My kid brother went through several when we were growing up, but by the time pokemon came out, he and I were playing together, I was still rocking my big old classic gameboy. Last I checked, it still worked too!

[Renzatic]

Originally Posted by mentaluproar

Renzatek, the gameboy pic made me smile. My kid brother went through several when we were growing up, but by the time pokemon came out, he and I were playing together, I was still rocking my big old classic gameboy. Last I checked, it still worked too!

Man, you must've been rough as hell on your electronics, cuz my experiences with the old Gameboy is that they're nigh on indestructible. I remember accidentally dropping it down the stairs at my old house at least twice, and it didn't even crack the plastic on the case.

I've still got it, in fact. My mom and dad picked it for me for Christmas '91. A couple weeks back I got curious and decided to pop some AA's into it see if it still worked. It did. The thing is nearly 21 years old, and it still fired up my old Zelda cartridge without a single complaint. The screens a bit faded, and it's lost a couple of horizontal lines of resolution, but it still going strong nearly a quarter of a century later.

I hope I can say the same thing about my iPad. O_o

[mentaluproar]

HE broke several. I owned the original. All I ever broke on that thing was the battery clasp.

[mtbdudex]

Adding to my post above, cleaning out my 25+ year old college files last weekend, came across these old Mechanical Engineering class lab book with some Timex Sinclair thermal paper graphs in it.
What 99.99% of students today don't realize is "the busy work" we did back then writing BASIC programs to just get class work done.
I wrote the programs necessary to calculate and plot the data...






I truly wonder if today's Engineering students even write computer code at all.....
Yea, I did use a slide rule in the 70's for 1-2 years 8th/9th grade, just then the first hand calculators came into also.

[Sue De Nimes]

In all honesty I can't remember. During the early 80s my father bought lots of computers to make sure we were up to speed on the "microcomputer revolution"

We had a ZX81, a Jupiter Ace, a VIC 20 and some other device I can't remember. My recollection is hazy as to which we had first.

We then moved on to a ZX Spectrum for about 3 days before my father returned it and exchanged it for a BBC Micro.

[Portaluk]

First computer I ever used was a BBC micro in school.

First one I ever owned was a spectrum 128k+2. Still got it in the loft with hundreds of games, all the booklets and in working condition last time i checked, too much sentimental value to get rid of it.

Still remember spending all evening entering in code just so I could get an image of the british flag.

[Micky Do]

The first computer I used was the first Mac, back in 1985 at university.

When I graduated, during the 1987 economic crisis, flash jobs were few and far between. Itinerant, seasonal farm work became my mainstay for years. There was not much call for a computer when shearing sheep, constructing farm fences, or driving a tractor.

With the new millennium came a career change. When I started my present job in 2003 I started to use a computer at work. There was one at first, then two, shared by about ten, in a not particularly peasant office. Most of us did most of our work at home. With a computer at home I could do a lot more.....

I wanted one that was easily transportable, but not a portable. I like to leave work behind when I leave my desk. When the Mac Mini came out it ticked all the boxes.

The first computer I owned was the original Mac Mini, which I bought mid 2005. (sorry no pictures). I didn't get on-line until mobile broadband became available in 2007; there is no land line to my apartment.

The 2005 Mini had its shortcomings that were addressed with later models. When the hard drive and power supply failed in 2009, I replaced it with my second Mac Mini. With a recent addition of more RAM, and installing Mountain Lion, it continues function well.

It will probably be a few more years before I get my third computer. It is likely to be another Mac Mini.

[millerj123]

Originally Posted by iMacFarlane

My first real computer was the Commodore 64, with 1541 disk drive and an old 13" color TV as a monitor. The day I played Bard's Tale on it was pretty much the last day I ever played my Atari.

The first computery type thing I had, though, was this thing. You could play a few matching games, music, and memory type stuff on it. Anybody remember what it was called? I do, just seeing if you recognize it or if you think it's some weird cell phone.

Ah, man, I loved the Merlin.

My dad had an Osborne 1, but I went with him to get our Commodore 64 with the disk drive and a generic color monitor. The guy selling it was a 20something living in his house/office above some kind of bakery.

I never played Bard's tale, but while away many hours at Ultima III and IV, Loderunner and Archon.

[ChristianJapan]

for me the typical carrier ...

ZX81 with 1kByte RAM and tape recorder, later 16kByte RAM

C64 with datasette and soon good old 1541, with a cutter to use the back side of disks

Atari ST, Epson HX20

PC (GEM, MSDOS, all kind of Windows, OS/2 and Minix/Linux)

Mac


Seeing some of the pictures here made me smile, thanks

[Lampmeister]

My first was a Tandy 1000 that I got sometime in the '80s. I still remember playing "Leisure Suit Larry" and having to insert a different 5 1/4" floppy every time he walked off the screen to a new area. Still, at the time it was awesome! Sorry, no pic.

[Gage]

After seeing all those old toys on Comic Book Men and now seeing that picture of that Merlin, I'm really missing my childhood.